SC Welfare Czarina Facing Subpoena Deadline

SENATORS TELL NIKKI HALEY’S “ROCK STAR” TO TESTIFY … OR ELSE

For the past three years, this website has been dutifully exposing a rash of issues at the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – the welfare agency run by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s hand-picked political appointee, Lillian Koller (above).

In recent months, these issues have finally caught the attention of the mainstream media …

Last month, for example, WLTX TV 19 (CBS – Columbia, S.C.) confirmed our reporting regarding the tragic tale of Robert Guilyard Jr., a four-year-old boy who was placed in an abusive home by Koller’s Department of Social Services (SCDSS) despite repeated warnings about his safety.

Because those warnings went unheeded, Guilyard was beaten to death in the home last summer.

We called on Haley to fire Koller in the aftermath of that tragedy – not just because there is actual blood on her hands, but because the Guilyard tragedy was the latest in a long line of examples of her unfitness for office.

Those last two allegations are especially serious – and reportedly the focus of a federal investigation into the agency.

Despite all this, Haley is not only standing by her embattled appointee … she still call her a “rock star.” Oh, and the governor is actively interfering with a legislative investigation into her multiple issues.

Lawmakers – including S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy (one of Haley’s staunchest allies) – have had enough. They’ve been trying to get Koller to testify for months, but the welfare czarina has refused – citing the lingering effects of an as-yet-unexplained December ailment.

Yet while Koller has been too sick to explain her agency’s many failures, she’s had time to attend Haley’s 2014 “State of the State” address and hobnob with Haley at a special dinner at the S.C. Governor’s Mansion.

In a letter sent to Koller this week, Shealy and Senators Tom Young (R-Aiken) and Joel Lourie (D-Richland) have given Koller three weeks to testify voluntarily – or face a subpoena.

“Please understand that your testimony before the subcommittee is essential for the subcommittee to continue its work,” the letter to Koller states. “If you do not attend the April 16th meeting of the subcommittee we will be left with no alternative but to exercise our subpoena powers to compel your attendance.”

Good … Koller should have appeared to answer the allegations against her months ago.